Well, I started to tackle the trunk damage on my car today, I knew the trunk was patched before and I could have lived with it the way it was if the previous owner hadn't run over something and pushed up the whole floor. What I'm finding now is bondo, sheet metal, and some sort of adhesive! Ugh.

Here's what it looked like when I first looked at the car...

This is after I brought her home, I didn't look in the trunk again until a few weeks after getting the car home...

And today, after peeling up some of the patch work....UGH....

_________________"Ever since he bought that car, he's been obsessed with it!"

Looks like he OD'd with the sheet metal patch(es)...Get it all off of there and see what it looks like. At the moment, it looks to me that there's just a little strip of rust through area on the left. A wire brush on your grinder will make quick work of it. Wear glasses and mask though...Do you have a Mig- welder Chris? Perhaps you can use some of that metal you've removed to fab some nice metal patches to weld in there?

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.1 John 5:11-12

1958PlymouthFuryChristineCCC Member

Posts : 958Points : 1033Reputation : 1Join date : 2015-06-01

Subject: Re: Got some UGH to deal with. Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:37 pm

It seems that to cause that much damage to the underside of your car Chris, the previous owner of your car must have thought that she was a 4-wheel drive or something and took her off-roading and I think what happened is must have hit a big rock on the underside while off-roading. That is the only explanation that I can think of to cause that much damage on the underside. I cannot understand the way people think sometimes!

But now comes trying to repair the damage the right way and not the wrong way as the previous owner has done. I agree with Bob's way for you to repair this, I do believe that it will be the right way for you to repair the damage on your car.

I knew going into this that there was a lot of doctored up rust "repairs" but it's pretty obvious that the work was just for cosmetic reasons. Unfortunately, to repair this car in the conventional way is cost prohibitive since so much of the car has issues like this, basically just about every part of the car has rust damage and she would require a total tear down and full restoration to address all the problems and that's out of the question, so I'm gonna have to come up with some unconventional solutions me thinks.

_________________"Ever since he bought that car, he's been obsessed with it!"

I knew going into this that there was a lot of doctored up rust "repairs" but it's pretty obvious that the work was just for cosmetic reasons. Unfortunately, to repair this car in the conventional way is cost prohibitive since so much of the car has issues like this, basically just about every part of the car has rust damage and she would require a total tear down and full restoration to address all the problems and that's out of the question, so I'm gonna have to come up with some unconventional solutions me thinks.

I'm missing something Chris...Obviously the way the seam cracked and the metal started to separate makes you think that the car hit/bottomed out on something but the first photos showed no crack...so how could the former owner have run something over or hit something if there was no crack when you got the car? Was the gas tank dented in from the bottom too? Are you sure that the adhesive didn't just start to let go and that's why the seam cracked?

I knew going into this that there was a lot of doctored up rust "repairs" but it's pretty obvious that the work was just for cosmetic reasons. Unfortunately, to repair this car in the conventional way is cost prohibitive since so much of the car has issues like this, basically just about every part of the car has rust damage and she would require a total tear down and full restoration to address all the problems and that's out of the question, so I'm gonna have to come up with some unconventional solutions me thinks.

I'm missing something Chris...Obviously the way the seam cracked and the metal started to separate makes you think that the car hit/bottomed out on something but the first photos showed no crack...so how could the former owner have run something over or hit something if there was no crack when you got the car? Was the gas tank dented in from the bottom too? Are you sure that the adhesive didn't just start to let go and that's why the seam cracked?

Bob

The first photo shows what the trunk looked like in July when I went to Missouri the first time, you can see the patches but it looked presentable. When I returned to MO in August, I didn't look in the trunk that time figuring that it was okay. The guy asked me if I looked in there and I said no, I had seen it before. Now I think back and wonder if the new damage was what he was referring to. When I got the car home, it was dark so I didn't notice any damage in there and I hadn't gone back into the trunk for several weeks but that's when I noticed the floor was bulged up and the seams were splitting, so something traumatic occurred between the time I first went to look at the car and the time I picked her up.

_________________"Ever since he bought that car, he's been obsessed with it!"

Now I understand Chris...and after looking at the photos again it does look like the trunk floor is bent/pushed upward. I see some kinks in the floor stiffeners after taking a closer look. I take it the gas tank was dented in too? Is that why you're replacing it?

Wow...he must have backed up over something very large. Perhaps you can get right in that trunk Chris...put your own weight over the appropriate areas and start pounding to straighten that floor out. Looks pretty solid to me...but whatever rust through areas you have after you're done cleaning the old adhesive/bondo/paint off, now would be the time to get her welded up properly. Do you have or know someone with a mig welder?

Well, I decided to get back to my trunk fun-ness this weekend, more ugh!

_________________"Ever since he bought that car, he's been obsessed with it!"

1958PlymouthFuryChristineCCC Member

Posts : 958Points : 1033Reputation : 1Join date : 2015-06-01

Subject: Re: Got some UGH to deal with. Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:59 pm

Ok, I see that I wasn't the only one working on cars this weekend. I got rust in my car's trunk too. I got a bit of rust cancer in it too.Most likely the best way to repair rust cancer is to get a new trunk pan or cut out the rust and weld in a patch of new metal.Rust is EVIL!